Upwork arbitration chances
Hi everyone here, had a tough client who doesn't want to pay $500 for the completed and posted work on their social media. Wanna acknowledge your opinion on the situation and my chances for arbitration.
So I'm a motion designer working on Upwork. A client came in March, he landed a contract, and proposed to connect with their team in Slack — I agreed. This project was completed successfully. He returned a week later with another project. We agreed on $1000 for 60 seconds motion graphics video, but later the scope of work increased to 90-seconds. I acknowledged to them that the price and timelines are also increasing 1.5 times to $1500 and 3 weeks, and they agreed. The client provided all the needed materials only 1 week before the deadline. I talked about my concerns regarding the deadline multiple times, but he was just saying, "hire someone or work more, we're not going to pay you if you don't come up with the ready video". Moreover, I recorded a video meeting (there are even more Slack chats about the ongoing work, including the list of revisions recorded). with the client's "right-hand" (idk who he is, but we were all together in the video creation chat in their Slack, and that guy was approving most things) and in this recording we clear agree that "I'll do the maximum as I can" and the client will get something postable until the deadline, and the revisions we'll do ASAP (some of them I managed to make before their deadline). Cannot post this video because it is too heavy and contains personal data about the client. After that call, an initial milestone for $1000 was approved, and a new milestone, "Video Revisions," for $500 was created and funded, and I proceeded with working. SOMEHOW I managed to create 90 seconds video before the deadline and even implemented some revisions (I asked some questions for revisions I didn't understand, but didn't get an answer), and later they asked for preview pics for the video and posted it on their social media. After that, I got messages that "it doesn't deserve additional payment," and I did not agree with it. And they just kicked me out of Slack, closed the contract, gave a 5-star review (!), and opened a dispute on Upwork. Hopefully, I managed to make a lot of screenshots in their Slack, which I'm sharing with you in chronological order (black — client, blue — me).
The problem here is that all communication and work deliveries were in Slack (but I have video versions before and after revisions, even on the screenshots). On screenshots, you could see that the duration of the initial video is 1:13, while they posted a video with a duration of 1:30, which I sent them 1 hour before their final deadline (MOST of their revisions were made, and I asked to provide more details in the last delivery).
The bad news is that Upwork's mediator decided to issue a 100% refund to the client because there was no delivery in the contract (I sent everything in Slack). I tried to agree on a $200 split, but the client declined, and the mediator just proposed a $125 courtesy credit and 25 connects. The time for mediation is over, and now I have a few days to make a decision on arbitration, which costs $675.
Sorry for the confusion, but I tried to explain it as clearly as possible. If you have any questions, welcome. Has someone had similar arbitration cases? Shall I go or shall I not? What if the client declines the arbitration consent? How do you think my chances are?
